As Spring begins, so does the true return of gaming news from January and February. Unfortunately, due to current events, this time is a little different. From competitive announcements to show rumors, as well as a widespread, cease of the games industry in one place, I am here to discuss all of this and a little more. 

The PS4 series “God of War” is rumored to be getting a television adaptation for Amazon Prime Video. Not much is known about the series beyond the aforementioned streaming platform and the reported involvement of Mark Fergus and Hawk Otsby of “Iron Man” fame and Rafe Judkins, showrunner of “The Wheel of Time” and former “Survivor” contestant. 

The negotiations are not hard to believe since Sony has taken more efforts to take their Playstation franchises to the big and small screens alike, with the recent release of the “Uncharted” film starring Tom Holland and the currently in production series based on “The Last of Us” starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.

 Between this and Sony’s “Spider-Man Universe’s” upcoming Morbius and Kraven the Hunter films, there are a lot of ways Sony will be using the IPs they have acquired or made over the years.

 Nevertheless, I am interested in seeing how they take a famously gruesome series like “God of War” and who they will cast as Kratos and possibly Atreus. The release date is unknown at the moment but does not expect to know much about it anytime soon.

The lineup of games for the “Evolution Championship Series (EVO) 2022,” a series of professional matches for fighting games played by some of the greatest players of said fighting games in the world, was revealed last week. Much like the 2021 and (at one point) 2020 championships, this one will not feature Super Smash Bros. 

Melee or Ultimate, and with the Sony purchase of EVO last year, these two games will likely never be seen again. The lineup includes “Street Fighter V –  Champion Edition,” an enhanced version of the original “Street Fighter V,” “Guilty Gear Strive,” an indie fighting game released in the summer of last year known for its character designs and style, “Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate,”  “Tekken 7,” the seventh installment in the series known for its differentiation from traditional fighting games. Among these are less traditional fighting games like “Melty Blood: Type Lumina”, the fifth installment of the series known for its similarities to visual novels.  “Dragon Ball FighterZ”,  is a fighting game developed by the same team behind “Guilty Gear Strive” based on the beloved anime/manga series, that feels like a mix between tradition and more “out there” concepts. EVO starts on August 5 and ends on the 7th. It will be fun to see the best of the best fight.

Following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, multiple game store outlets such as the PlayStation Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam, among basically every other major digital store, have completely stopped monetary transactions in Russia for the sake of stopping any flow of money in the country towards their government. This is along with many other businesses and even full governments. 

This segment will not go too far into that since this is a video game article that someone is writing for fun, but just know that these restrictions are not likely to leave anytime soon. In the meantime, the website/organization Humble Bundle, a site known for selling large bundles of games at small prices for charity, has opened ways to help with the Ukrainian crisis, and if you want to help and get some highly acclaimed games, you should buy a bundle. They are cheap and go to a good cause.